Never Make A Promise

Never Make A Promise epilogue

Eh, I'm not in a 'third person epilogue' type of mood. I'm in a first person mood. Yeah, I think I'll keep it in Hayley's point of view....just because I want to and I can. So ha. This is the very last you'll read from this story, unless you go back and read it over again. This is the epilogue and it takes place seven years after everything happened and yeah.

I just want to take this time to thank you all so much for reading and for commenting and voting and for being patient with me. I know I've been busy with school lately- even though I absolutely dislike it with a passion- and I didn't have time to upload on this story at times, but you were patient and you waited. Thank you all so much, you're the absolute best! I love you all!

<3 Nikky~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




"Damon Nathaniel Smith, I will kill you!" I screamed at my husband for the second time in ten minutes. He looked at the nurse on my other side with a sheepish smile and shrugged.

"She still loves me," he said.

"Ugh, no! I hate you!" I screamed again as I squeezed the hell out of his hand. He deserved to have his hand squeezed like this. He did this to me!

"Hayley, I'm going to need you to push again, okay hun?" the doctor......ugh, whatever the hell her name was. I wasn't even trying to remember right now, I was in so much freaking pain! She told me to get the epidural, but NO! I wanted a NATURAL birth! Damon told me I was crazy for that, but can you really blame me for not wanting a drugged up baby? I pushed like the doctor had told me to and cried out at the searing pain....down there.

"I had no idea how strong you were, babe," Damon said with a pained face. He was looking down at his hand which was squeezed in mine.

"Now you do," I breathed.

"It's crowning," the doctor said. "One more big push, Hayley! You can do it!" Did she want me to do that WITH or WITHOUT dying? Because I was sure I could do the later more than I was sure about the sooner. I obeyed her anyway and pushed with all my might. You know, when I first heard and saw how a baby was born, I told myself that there was no way in hell that I was going to let any guy knock me up. And if he did, I would go after him with a freaking rifle and shoot his business. Yeah, I was a bit violent. After what seemed like hours later, I finally heard the shrieking cry of a newborn. The pain instantly turned down a few notches and I threw my head back on the pillow underneath.

"What is it?" I asked. Damon and I never asked to know what the gender of our child was because we both wanted it to be a surprise.

"It's a handsome baby boy!" the doctor grinned at me. Damon's face lightened and he smirked his famous smirk at me.

"You and Aliyah owe me ten bucks each," he said. I rolled my eyes and pouted my lips. Yes, Aliyah and I had bet Damon, Jordan, and Seth that our baby was going to be a girl and not a boy. Now we both lost thirty bucks each.

"Would you like to cut the cord, Dad?" a nurse asked him. He nodded and went to cut the cord while I watched the doctor and nurses with my baby. I couldn't tell much from here, but something told me that this kid was going to look JUST LIKE his dad. Finally, the doctor brought my son who was now wrapped up in a blue blanket over to me and let me hold him. I held him gently in my arms and gazed down at him. To my surprise, his eyes were wide open.

"Oh my god, Damon," I said. "He has your eyes."

"Look at that," Damon said as he and I both looked at our son's ocean blue eyes. And you know something else? I was right. He looked JUST LIKE Damon! Which tells you he's going to be a good looking kid.

"What do you want to name him?" I asked. Damon looked at me and sighed thoughtfully.

"I don't know," he said. "What do YOU want to name him?"

"How is....." I tried to think of a name that he and I would both liked, that had meaning. I used to want to adopt a son and a daughter, since I didn't want to give birth to any, and I wanted to name my daughter Athena and my son Jake. Well, Jake was out of the question now. "Landon?"

"After my Dad?"

"Why not?" I smiled.

"Okay, how about Landon William Smith?"

"I actually really like that," I said, looking back down at him. Landon William Smith was now in the world as mine and Damon's son and I couldn't be happier.

~~That night, I woke up to see Damon standing by the window, holding our son in his arms.

"And I'm going to teach you how to play base ball, and how to beat Uncle Larry in Foosball," he whispered to Landon. I smiled as he went on and made a list of all the things he was going to teach our son to do. When I first met him, I never saw Damon as the fatherly type. This just proves my seventeen year old self how wrong she was.

"And I'M going to teach you how to beat down your daddy's ego," I said. Damon turned to me with a little smirk.

"It's not as big as it was," he admitted. I let out a giggle.

"That's what he said," I said. It took him a minute, but he got it and stuck his tongue out at me. "VERY mature."

"Oh and like that, that's what he said comment was?"

"Hell yeah, it was."

"Okay, whatever," he said softly as he walked over to me. I scooted over so he could lay down on the bed beside me. He passed Landon to me and put an arm around my shoulders after I had him. I looked up at Damon.

"Are you happy?" I asked him. He looked deep into my eyes, then leaned down and kissed my lips gently.

"Very," he said sincerely.

~~"Oh my god!" Aliyah shrieked as she came running over to the side of my bed. Joyce followed her into the room with my dad in tow followed by Larry and Becca, and Landon- Damon's dad- and Jordan and Seth. The two of them had gotten married after a year and a half of dating when my dad reunited with me seven years ago. Joyce peered at Landon and she looked from him to Damon.

"Is it just me, or am I seeing a baby Damon here?" she asked. Dad peeked over her shoulder and compared the two.

"No, I see a baby Damon too," he said.

"He's SO cute!" Aliyah cooed at him. "You named him Landon, right?"

"Yep," I confirmed. Damon's dad's expression turned soft.

"I see," Dad said a little stiffly.

"Landon William Smith," I said, knowing Dad's feelings were a little hurt that we didn't name him William. His face brightened when I told them the full name. Aliyah smiled and took Seth's hand. Who knew that the two of them would end up together? They didn't have any kids yet, but they were thinking about it. Mattie rushed into the room with a bundle of blue balloons and a giant blue Teddy bear.

"I'm sorry," she gasped, coming to Jordan's side. "It's just that....those elevators are slow as ever!"

"Trust us, we know," Aliyah said. Mattie and Jordan ended up staying together and they were now engaged. Mattie wanted me to be her maid of honor while Jordan wanted Seth to be his best man.

"He's so adorable," Joyce said.

"Do you want to hold him?" I asked her. She nodded eagerly and held out her arms. I gently handed Landon over to her and she gazed at him.

"Dude, he looks just like you," Larry told Damon. He and Becca started dating a week after my dad came to Aspen. That was too long to wait in mine and Aliyah's opinion, but that's just us. We are now currently waiting for Mattie and Jordan's wedding reception, where Larry plans on proposing. They're a little young, yes, but when you've been together for seven years you don't really care.

"I can't believe I have a grandson," Dad said. "Hey there, Landon."

"I can't wait to have kids of my own," Becca said. Larry stiffened and gave Damon a nervous look, who returned the nervous look with an amused one. I smiled and held on to Damon's hand. Seriously, what more could I ask for? Damon was my wonderful husband, I had my dad back, Joyce was still there for me while happily married to him, I had my best friends and added family and friends, and now I had a baby boy. And as for Jake and the rest of that gang? Well, we haven't heard from them in a long time and it looked like it was going to stay that way, especially since Jake was sent to prison for life. Uncle Ed was still in prison too. I haven't gone back to see him, though my dad was planning to. I looked at Damon and smiled. I couldn't believe at how insanely happy I turned out to be. And to think that before, I never wanted to make a promise or hear anyone make a promise to me. Now, I had absolutely no problem with the 'p' word.